“It’s going to be like a meteor hitting the town, because there’s a lot of reverberations for different people,” he said. “For the PLLs, it’s can we resume the friendships we had when she was with us? And the idea of Alison coming back, we talked in the writer’s room about this, because now that she’s in the present tense and not in these past flashbacks, one of the writers said, ‘What if all those flashbacks were skewed by the pretty little liars? What if she’s not that mean? What if she’s not this holier than thou bitch who’s self-serving and devious. What if that’s what we needed her to be?’”

Whoa. Now that’s an interesting plot twist! Have the Liars skewed their own perceptions of Ali to make themselves feel better? We saw a little bit of this unfold as Spencer started to unravel the events on the night Ali disappeared. And now it’s possible Alison’s feelings for Emily may have been more genuine than Em remembers.

“The idea is that you and I have memories of somebody and there’s a reason why we remember them the way that we do,” Oliver added. “You might need to remember them that way to alleviate some of our own guilt, because we were responsible for this person leaving… I think that really informs a lot of the early episodes of her returning. We’re having a lot of fun with that.”

We wonder how that’s going to change the Liars’ relationship with Ali in Season 5. Clearly, Ali is coming back to Rosewood somewhat of a changed person. Of course, she’s still keeping far too many secrets from her friends — secrets that could help the Liars figure out show’s biggest mystery: Who is “A”?

According to Oliver, the Liars get “very close” to figuring out “A’s” identity. “Their wings touch the sun,” he said. “They get very close to getting badly burned.”

That doesn’t sound good! Between rooftop shootouts, deadly night trains, and cabin fires, what else does “A” have up his/her sleeves? We might find out in the premiere (“EscApe From New York”).

Oliver told Wetpaint that there’s “another shocking event [in the premiere] that bonds the pretty little liars even further and it happens outside of Rosewood.” We’re thinking this might be the scary run-in that happens in New York City between a group of people in creepy masks and the Liars.

Reporting by Alex Cramer.

Catch the Season 5 premiere of Pretty Little Liars on Tuesday, June 10 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC Family.

Crystal Bell is an editor at Wetpaint Entertainment and our resident fangirl for all things Pretty Little Liars. Follow her on Twitter and Google+!